Action Adventure – It's All About the Book

Description

From Edgar Award–winning author Steve Hamilton, An Honorable Assassin is another terrifying thriller featuring the unstoppable Nick Mason.

He was released from federal prison to a second life as an unwilling assassin, serving a major Chicago crime lord until the day he finally won his freedom.

But that freedom was a lie.

Now Mason finds himself on a plane to Jakarta, promoted to lead assassin for a vast shadow organization that reaches every corner of the globe. This time, there’s only one name on his list: Hashim Baya—otherwise known as the Crocodile—international fugitive and #1 most wanted on Interpol’s “Red Notice” list. Baya is the most dangerous and elusive criminal Mason has ever faced.

And for the first time in his career … Mason fails his mission. Baya gets away alive.

There’s only one thing he can do now: to save himself, his ex-wife, and his daughter, he must make this mission his life, hunting down the target on his own. But Mason isn’t alone in his search, because for Interpol agent Martin Sauvage, apprehending Baya has become a personal vendetta. Sauvage is a man just as haunted as Mason. And just as determined.

Never have the stakes been so high, the forces surrounding him so great. Sauvage wants Baya in prison. Mason needs him in a body bag. Assassin and cop are on a five-thousand-mile collision course, leading to a brutal final showdown—and the one man in the world who can finally show Nick Mason the way to freedom.

My Thoughts

I’ve not read the earlier entries in the Nick Mason series, but that didn’t matter one bit with this powerhouse of a book. Fans of high-octane, action-adventure stories will gravitate to this tale of an anti-hero who kills (bad) people for a living but still clings to some semblance of his humanity.

What sets this apart from your garden variety adventure novel is Hamilton’s writing. His command of language and description results in a vivid and well-plotted tale.

My first experience reading Hamilton’s work was The Lock Artist which was on my “Best Of” list for 2010. Now that I know there are other Nick Mason books, I’ll be adding those to my TBR list for sure.

Fans of Robert Crais, Nick Petrie, and Tom Clancy will certainly enjoy this one. Recommended.

A Note from the Publisher

Steve Hamilton is the two-time Edgar Award–winning, New York Times bestselling author of the Alex McKnight series (with over a million copies sold), the Nick Mason series, and the stand-alone novel The Lock Artist. Two of his novels have been named New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and he’s one of only three authors in history to win Edgar Awards for both Best First Novel and Best Novel. Other major awards include the Shamus, the Barry, the AMA Alex Award, and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller. He was born and raised in the Detroit area and attended the University of Michigan, where he received the prestigious Hopwood Award for Fiction.

Publication Date: August 27, 2024
Published By: Blackstone Publishing
Thanks to the Publisher for the review

Description

Currently in development as a TV series from Amazon MGM Studios, a story of a thrilling hunt around the globe, pitting nation against nation, as ancient myths of a lost continent prove all too real—the latest novel in the bestselling Sigma Force series from James Rollins, #1 New York Times master of international thrillers

The execution of a Vatican archivist within the shadow of the Kremlin exposes a conspiracy going back three centuries—to the bloody era of the Russian Tsars. Before his murder, he manages to dispatch a coded message, a warning of a terrifying threat, one tied to a secret buried within the Golden Library of Tsars, a vast and treasured archive that had vanished into history.

As combative forces race for the truth behind this death and alarming discovery, Sigma Force is summoned to aid in the search—not only for this missing trove of ancient books, but to follow a trail far into the Arctic, to search for the truth about a lost continent and a revelation that could ignite a global war. But Sigma Force has its own difficulties at home after an explosive attack on the National Mall—one aimed at the heart of their covert agency—has left them vulnerable and exposed.

The growing conflict—both on Russian soil and deep in the Arctic—will reignite a centuries-old war between the newly resurgent Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican, while sabers rattle across the nations of the Arctic Circle, threatening to turn those icy seas into a fiery conflagration.

Facing enemies on all sides, it will be up to Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force to unravel a mystery going back millennia—and uncover the truth about a lost civilization and an arcane treasure that could save the planet…or destroy it.

My Thoughts

James Rollins never fails to provide a pulse-pounding, nail-biting adventure. He is at the top of his game with Arkangel, which has nudged The Last Odyssey out of place in the list of my favorite Rollins novels.

Here, members of the Sigma Force team face treacherous demons from their past but also race once again to save the world, this time in the Arctic. One of the things that makes Rollins’ novels much more than the usual action-adventure story is his blend of storytelling, myth, and meticulous research, and he is at the top of his game here.

The incorporation of another aspect of Greek myth – the Hyperboreans – hooked me immediately. Merriam Webster defines them this way:

In ancient Greek mythology, the “Hyperboreoi” were a people who lived in a northern paradise of perpetual sunshine beyond the reaches of the god of the north wind. Their name located them within the Greek world; it combined the prefix “hyper-,” meaning “above,” and “Boreas,” the Greek name for the north wind.

If you grew up devouring mythological texts, you will most certainly enjoy this book. Just so, so good.

Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Published By: William Morrow
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy